Quick answer: The hardest times tables facts for most kids are 6x7, 6x8 and 7x8, along with close relatives like 7x7, 6x9 and 8x8. They lack an easy counting pattern like the 2s, 5s or 10s, and their answers sit close enough together to get swapped. The fix is to shrink the list first, since flipped facts like 6x7 and 7x6 are really the same fact, then teach each remaining hard fact with a specific strategy instead of more whole-chart drilling.
If you searched for the hardest times tables tonight because your child just missed 6 times 7 for the third time this week, you are not alone. Of all the multiplication facts a child learns, a small handful cause most of the trouble, and 6x7, 6x8 and 7x8 are almost always on that short list.
The good news is that these facts are not harder because your child is behind. They are harder because of where they sit in the times tables and how little natural pattern they have to lean on.
This guide walks through exactly which facts tend to be the stickiest, why they resist the usual flashcard drilling, and the specific strategies that help each one finally stay put.
1. What Are the Hardest Times Tables to Learn?
Ask most parents or teachers which facts give kids the most trouble, and a short, consistent list comes up: 6x7, which is 42, 6x8, which is 48, and 7x8, which is 56. Close behind them are 7x7, which is 49, 6x9, which is 54, and 8x8, which is 64. These six facts are the ones that tend to get mixed up, answered slowly, or guessed at long after the rest of the chart feels solid.
There is a reason this exact cluster shows up so often. Facts in the 2, 5 and 10 tables follow an obvious counting pattern, so a child can often work them out even before memorizing them. The 10s table in particular comes from a clear place value rule, which our guide to multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000 breaks down in more depth. Facts in the 6, 7 and 8 tables have no such shortcut, which means a child has to rely on pure recall from the very start.
On top of that, the answers to this cluster sit very close together. 42, 48, 49, 54 and 56 are all within a handful of numbers of each other, which makes it easy for a child to pull the wrong one out of memory under pressure, even when they clearly know their facts overall. Our guide to common multiplication mistakes covers this exact kind of near-miss error in more detail.
These facts also tend to arrive last in a typical learning order, after the easier tables are already locked in, which means they simply get less total practice time before a child is expected to know them cold.
💡 Practical tip: If your child seems shaky on several facts at once, check whether they all come from this same cluster. A pattern like that usually means the fix is targeted practice on six facts, not a full review of the whole chart.
2. Cut the List in Half First: Flipped Facts Are the Same Fact
Before teaching any strategy, it helps to shrink the list of facts your child actually needs to learn. Multiplication is commutative, which means 6x7 and 7x6 give the exact same answer, 42. A child does not need to memorize both as separate facts, only one, and then recognize that the flipped version works the same way.
Once you apply that to the hard cluster, the list is smaller than it looks. 6x7 covers 7x6. 6x8 covers 8x6. 7x8 covers 8x7. That means a child who feels overwhelmed by "six hard facts" is often really facing just three unique facts, plus their flipped twins, which is a much more manageable target for a short practice session.
Pointing this out explicitly to your child can also be a confidence boost on its own. "You already know this one, it is just facing the other way" tends to land better than presenting it as a brand new fact to learn from scratch.
💡 Practical tip: Write the hard facts as flipped pairs on one card, like "6x7 = 7x6 = 42," so your child sees the connection every time they review it, instead of treating the two orders as unrelated facts.
3. Why Does My Child Keep Getting 6 x 7 Wrong? Build It From a Known Fact
A child who keeps getting 6x7 wrong is usually trying to pull the answer straight from memory with nothing to check it against, which is exactly where a near-miss like 41 or 48 slips in. A more reliable approach is to build the hard fact from an easier one your child already knows well.
Here are the three bridges that work well for this exact cluster. For 6x7, start from 5x7, which is 35, and add one more 7: 35 plus 7 equals 42. For 7x8, start from 7x7, which is 49, and add one more 7: 49 plus 7 equals 56. For 6x8, start from 6x7, which is 42, and add one more 6: 42 plus 6 equals 48.
Each of these bridges leans on a fact from the 5 or 6 or 7 table that most kids already know solidly, since those facts come earlier in a typical learning order. Our guide on the best order to learn times tables explains why building newer facts on top of older ones tends to work better than memorizing everything in isolation.
💡 Practical tip: Have your child say the bridge out loud every time at first, like "6x7 is 5x7 plus 7 more." Saying the reasoning, not just the answer, is what makes the strategy stick instead of the mistake.
4. How Do You Remember 7 x 8? Memory Hooks for the Stickiest Facts
7x8 gets singled out so often as the single hardest multiplication fact that it has its own well-known memory hook. Count out the sequence 5, 6, 7, 8. The first two numbers, 5 and 6, form 56, and the last two numbers, 7 and 8, are the exact factors being multiplied. Saying "5, 6, 7, 8, fifty-six is 7 times 8" out loud a few times tends to lock the fact in place.
6x7 and 6x8 do not have a counting trick quite as clean as 7x8, so a short, silly story that you and your child invent together often works better than searching for a universal one. The sillier and more personal the line, the more likely it is to stick, since your child is the one who made it up.
For example, a child might land on "6 and 7 had a fight, 42 was the result" or anything equally nonsensical that makes them laugh. Our full roundup of techniques to memorize times tables fast has more hooks like this one for other tricky facts across the chart.
💡 Practical tip: Keep homemade hooks to one short line each. A long story is harder to recall under pressure than the fact itself, which defeats the purpose.
5. How to Practice Hard Facts Without Tears
Once your child has a strategy for a hard fact, the practice itself should stay small and calm. Pick just one fact, like 6x7, and stick with it for a few days before adding the next one. Trying to fix all six hard facts in a single session usually backfires and leaves none of them feeling solid.
Mix the new hard fact in with facts your child already knows well, rather than drilling it in isolation. Answering a run of easy facts correctly, with the hard one slipped in occasionally, keeps confidence up and gives the new strategy a chance to kick in without added pressure.
Once your child can answer a hard fact correctly every time with no rush, a quick, low-pressure speed game like Rocket Dash is a good next step, since it turns the final step, getting faster, into something that feels like play rather than another drill.
💡 Practical tip: Five minutes a day on one hard fact, repeated for three or four days, usually beats one long twenty minute session aimed at all six at once.
Common Questions About the Hardest Times Tables Facts
What are the hardest times tables to learn?
Parents and teachers most commonly report 6x7, 6x8 and 7x8 as the stickiest multiplication facts, along with close relatives like 7x7, 6x9 and 8x8. These facts sit in the middle of the times tables, have no easy counting pattern like the 2s, 5s or 10s, and their answers, 42, 48, 49, 54 and 56, are close enough together to get mixed up.
Why does my child keep getting 6 x 7 wrong?
6x7 is often confused with its close neighbors, like 6x8 or 7x7, because the answers are only a few numbers apart and the fact has no simple counting trick. Building 6x7 from a fact your child already knows well, such as 5x7 plus one more 7, usually fixes the mix-up faster than repeating the whole chart.
How do you remember 7 x 8?
A popular memory hook for 7x8 uses the counting sequence 5, 6, 7, 8: the first two numbers in that sequence, 5 and 6, form 56, and the last two numbers, 7 and 8, are the factors being multiplied. Saying "5, 6, 7, 8, 56 is 7 times 8" out loud a few times tends to make the fact stick.
What is the hardest multiplication fact?
7x8 is the fact parents and teachers mention most often as the hardest single multiplication fact, since it combines two tricky numbers with no shared pattern and sits right in the middle of the table where it gets the least dedicated practice. 6x7 and 6x8 are usually mentioned close behind it.
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A Short List, Not a Lost Cause
The hardest times tables facts feel bigger than they really are. Once flipped facts are counted as one fact instead of two, most kids are really working on three or four stubborn facts, not an entire chart. Build each one from something already known, give it a short, personal memory hook, and practice it alone for a few days before moving on.
Facts like 6x7, 6x8 and 7x8 do tend to be the last ones to click. With a bit of targeted attention, they are also some of the fastest to finally stick for good.